http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html
I think it's good news for us. There will be people scared or disgusted by the forming monopoly and looking for alternatives. Also, it seems likely that Freehand will be either discontinued or at least downplayed so as to not hurt Illustrator, which means a lot of users will have to migrate. All this gives us a certain opportunity.
On Mon, Apr 18, 2005 at 08:25:58AM -0300, bulia byak wrote:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html
"Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools – and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash – we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of devices and operating systems."
The FAQ mentions merging FlashPlayer and "the Adobe Reader". This suggests a future of people distributing proprietary files where today they would distribute quasi-proprietary pdf.
"Is the combined company committed to Flash as a development platform? Yes. Macromedia has made tremendous progress in attracting developers to Flash, and the Flash platform will be a key component of the combined company's strategy going forward.
"How does this affect Ado be's support of SVG (scalable vector graphics)? Both Adobe and Macromedia have been involved in defining SVG and both were part of the W3C working group that defined SVG. The combined company will continue to work with customers and partners to define a future roadmap for our products."
There is a noticeable absence of commitment to future support for SVG in that answer, contrasting with their stated commitment to Flash.
I think it's good news for us. There will be people scared or disgusted by the forming monopoly and looking for alternatives.
Let's hope so. My reading so far is that Adobe is moving away from open standards and towards proprietary formats. Even in pdf, later versions of the format aren't documented.
Also, it seems likely that Freehand will be either discontinued or at least downplayed so as to not hurt Illustrator,
It isn't clear to me that Illustrator will be the outright winner: Freehand does have certain features/properties that the new Adobe will want, such as integration with Flash, and is more suitable for desktop-publishing tasks (as appropriate for authoring typical pdf files).
This may result in a combined product and a steep upgrade price.
(However, note that I've used neither Illustrator nor Freehand, nor for that matter any Adobe/Macromedia/Aldus product to my knowledge (other than a few minutes with PageMaker a few years ago).)
which means a lot of users will have to migrate. All this gives us a certain opportunity.
We can emphasize the importance of open standards.
Our http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?MacromediaFreehand page is currently empty but for a couple of links.
pjrm.
Let's hope so. My reading so far is that Adobe is moving away from open standards and towards proprietary formats. Even in pdf, later versions of the format aren't documented.
I'm not sure Adobe has one day be interested in Open Source. Of cource they created or contributed to Open Format (XMP, DMG, SVG, PDF...) but i think this much a way to simplify their own implementation, and improve their support by compatibility. For example, Gimp plug-in for Exif access support more Camera than Photoshop. Does. And XMP is the answer that Adobe made : "we can read everything so use our Open format. "
Also, it seems likely that Freehand will be either discontinued or at least downplayed so as to not hurt Illustrator,
It isn't clear to me that Illustrator will be the outright winner: Freehand does have certain features/properties that the new Adobe will want, such as integration with Flash, and is more suitable for desktop-publishing tasks (as appropriate for authoring typical pdf files).
This may result in a combined product and a steep upgrade price.
Sure. But price is not our purpose, i think. And we have to be scared of people that are just looking for free (gratis) softwares.
(However, note that I've used neither Illustrator nor Freehand, nor for that matter any Adobe/Macromedia/Aldus product to my knowledge (other than a few minutes with PageMaker a few years ago).)
I used them a lot at work. These are of course very good tools but not free.
which means a lot of users will have to migrate. All this gives us a certain opportunity.
We can emphasize the importance of open standards.
And GPL softwares as access to diversity.
Cedric Inkscape User Manual
On 4/18/05, Peter Moulder <Peter.Moulder@...38...> wrote:
Let's hope so. My reading so far is that Adobe is moving away from open standards and towards proprietary formats. Even in pdf, later versions of the format aren't documented.
What exactly documentation for PDF do you mean? Latest version of PDF 1.6 is documented
Alexandre
On Monday 18 April 2005 14:40, Peter Moulder wrote:
On Mon, Apr 18, 2005 at 08:25:58AM -0300, bulia byak wrote:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html
"Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools – and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash – we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of devices and operating systems."
The FAQ mentions merging FlashPlayer and "the Adobe Reader". This suggests a future of people distributing proprietary files where today they would distribute quasi-proprietary pdf.
Perhaps they will supplement or replace the Javascript and presentation capabilities of PDF with Flash. Its a pity that it surely wont be animated SVG.
Craig
Quoting Craig Bradney <cbradney@...242...>:
Perhaps they will supplement or replace the Javascript and presentation capabilities of PDF with Flash. Its a pity that it surely wont be animated SVG.
I doubt Flash would replace anything Javascript -- I don't know how people keep missing this, but modern ActionScript (Flash's scripting language) is an ECMAScript implementation, just as Javascript/JScript/whatever is.
i.e. they are the same language
-mental
On Mon, 2005-04-18 at 08:25 -0300, bulia byak wrote:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandmacromedia.html
I think it's good news for us. There will be people scared or disgusted by the forming monopoly and looking for alternatives. Also, it seems likely that Freehand will be either discontinued or at least downplayed so as to not hurt Illustrator, which means a lot of users will have to migrate. All this gives us a certain opportunity.
IMO: Either SVG will continue to be pushed, or it will be left by the wayside. It is obvious that SVG has been pushed by ADOBE in order to compete with FLASH. They have tried to make their plugin formidable to flash, but have not succeeded to break the saturated flash market.
I think that since ADOBE has Flash now, there is no need to sink monies into SVG, as they own it all and will control that area of the market from their centralized headquarters...I don't think it is a good thing this consolidation for SVG.
However, since many analysts say Adobe purchased Macromedia to compete with M$, maybe M$ will see the light and push for SVG or their WVG to compete with Adobe's fortification.
Jon
participants (7)
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unknown＠example.com -
Alexandre Prokoudine -
bulia byak -
Craig Bradney -
Cédric GEMY -
Jon Phillips -
Peter Moulder